The Aesthetics of Marina Abramović: in Conversation with the Artist Citation: M
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Firenze University Press Aisthesis www.fupress.com/aisthesis The Aesthetics of Marina Abramović: In Conversation with the Artist Citation: M. Rosa (2019) The Aesthet- ics of Marina Abramović: In Conver- sation with the Artist. Aisthesis 12(1): 99-106. doi: 10.13128/Aisthesis-25625 Marta Rosa Copyright: © 2019 M. Rosa. This is an open access, peer-reviewed article published by Firenze University Press (http://www.fupress.com/aisthesis) and distributed under the terms of the «The Cleaner» was Italy’s first major retrospective dedicated to Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distri- Marina Abramović, hosted at Palazzo Strozzi in Florence from 21 bution, and reproduction in any medi- September 2018 to 20 January 2019. The title of the exhibition refers um, provided the original author and to Abramović’s reflection on her life, of which – as in a house – only source are credited. the essential should be preserved and the rest should be “cleaned”. Data Availability Statement: All rel- For this reason, with over one hundred pieces of work on display, evant data are within the paper and its Supporting Information files. this exhibition spans a half-century of activity from the matriarch of Performance Art, a woman that has revolutionized the very idea of Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing inter- this art with her personal and professional life over the last decades. ests exist. To mark this occasion, I had the opportunity to interview this great artist, who was born on the 30th November 1946 in Belgrade, during Tito’s regime in SFR Yugoslavia. Her parents were Partisan war heroes who helped fight the Nazis in World War II and held high positions in the communist government. The artist remembers them as figures who were not very involved in her life, too strict and not at all loving. Likely for this reason, Abramović developed an iron self-discipline, which is evident in all of her performances; not to leave anything to chance she plans the performances to the very last detail, fully aware of the risks that they may involve and ready to face them without fear. After her studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade, in the early 1970s Abramović began her artistic career. With her first per- formances – such as «Rhythm Series» (1973-1974), «Thomas Lips» (1975), «Art Must Be Beautiful/Artist Must Be Beautiful» (1975), or «Freeing Series» (1975) – she tried to free the senses, transcend the limitations of the body, and achieve a higher sense of understanding. These performances also represented her definitive turn away from traditional media, such as painting or drawing, to a complete focus on the use of her own body as an art medium. When she was a stu- dent, Abramović worked intensely with painting, repeating almost Aisthesis. Pratiche, linguaggi e saperi dell'estetico 12(1): 99-106, 2019 ISSN 2035-8466 (online) | DOI: 10.13128/Aisthesis-25625 100 Marta Rosa obsessively the same themes, such as violent head- performance «Balkan Baroque», was a symbolic on truck accidents or clouds that became geo- act of cleansing from the devastating war in Yugo- metrical shapes or faceless human figures. How- slavia, a sort of requiem for her homeland, as well ever, as soon as she discovered Performance Art, as a way of directly confronting death. During this Abramović abandoned all other expressive forms performance, Abramović sat on a mountain of and reached farther than any other artist… 1,500 cow bones, washing blood from them with When she decided to leave Belgrade, a metal brush, continuously singing sad folk songs Abramović arrived in Amsterdam, where on the from her childhood. 30th November 1975 – the day of her 29th birth- In recent years Marina Abramović changed day – she met the German artist Ulay (Frank Uwe her modus operandi: she transformed her posi- Laysiepen, who coincidentally was also born on tion and became the silent partner of an intimate the 30th November) with whom began a tormented and energetic dialogue with the audience. That is romantic and professional relationship that would emblematically testified in 2010 by «The Artist Is last twelve years. Abramović and Ulay claimed to Present» at the MoMA of New York. During this be merged into a single hermaphrodite organism, performance – which has already become a “clas- and during this period, they travelled for three sic” of Performance Art –, Abramović engaged years across Europe in an iconic Citroën HY van, in mutual gaze with more than one thousand following the rules of their manifesto «Art Vital» strangers over the course of three months. Over (no fixed living-place; permanent movement; direct 850,000 visitors came to see this extraordinary contact; local relation; self-selection; passing limita- retrospective, and Abramović was inspired by tions; taking risks; mobile energy; no rehearsal; no the general public’s desire to engage with such predicted end; no repetition). The couple collabo- immaterial works. Here is when her vision of rated in a series of relational performances – such MAI (Marina Abramović Institute for the Preser- as «Relation in Space» (1976), «Relation in Time» vation of Performance Art) was born. (1977), «Imponderabilia» (1977), and «AAA-AAA» The philosophy of the Institute is to teach (1978) –, calling into question the socially defined how it is possible to do Performance Art today, identities of both femininity and masculinity, and and how to safeguard it. Through the Abramović encouraging viewers to participate through their Method, a physical and mental practice that art- own exploration of gender relationships. In the ists can use to produce a performance, and which 1980s they took anthropological research trips in consists in different exercises focused on breath, India, Thailand, China, Tibet, and the Austral- motion, stillness, and concentration, the Institute ian outback to learn meditation practices. During trains also the audience to attend long duration this “spiritual period”, the artists conceived some performances. The audience, in fact, plays a cen- of their most long-lasting performances, based on tral role in this method, as without an audience a the exchange of looks and mental energy between performance could not exist. The audience must them, such as in the series «Nightsea Crossing» learn to stay in the moment and be present in (1981-1987), which the couple performed for both time and space, only in this way can the per- seven hour periods over a total of 90 days in gal- formance “work” and transform people. leries throughout Europe, America and Austral- Performance Art is not only a transforma- ia. In 1988, with the performance «The Lovers», tive art, but also an extremely ephemeral artistic Abramović and Ulay separated at the Great Wall of form. To maintain a performance, which could China, however the end of this important artistic otherwise live only as archive documentation, “marriage” meant, at the same time, a new begin- Abramović invents and uses re-performance as a ning for the career of Marina Abramović. new artistic “strategy”. In this way, Abramović has Abramović was awarded the Golden Lion for laid the groundwork for going beyond the ephem- Best Artist at the 1997 Venice Biennale for the eral in her work and reinventing the very idea of The Aesthetics of Marina Abramović: 101 performance in the 21st century. Performed by Marta Rosa: You are considered as a pioneer new artists, performances of the past are no long- of Performance Art and you have defined your- er simply archive documentation, they take on a self as the “grandmother” of this extraordinary new second life and change with each performer, and unique visual art. For this reason nobody exactly as happens with different performances of better than you can try to give an answer to this a musical piece or a ballet, which can change radi- question: what is Performance Art? cally from one performer to the next. According to Abramović’s herself “a work must have its own Marina Abramović: Many people, who do life and survive its creator”. This approach is evi- Performance Art, can give this answer, and every dent in exhibitions such as the great «Seven Easy answer will be very different, as each person has Pieces», presented at the Guggenheim Museum a different relationship with performance. I can of New York in 2005, during which Abramović only give my own answer. For me, performance is re-performed some of the most significant works a mental and physical construction that you made of pioneers of Performance Art – Joseph Beuys’s at a specific time, in a specific space, in front of «How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare», Valie an audience, where an energy dialogue is going Export’s «Action Pants: Genital Panic», Gina to happen. This is for me the performance. It is a Pane’s «The Conditioning: First Action of Self- live form of art and it is also a time-based art: you Portraits(s)», Bruce Nauman’s «Body Pressure», have to be there to perceive it. Vito Acconci’s «Seed Bed», and her own perfor- mance «Lips of Thomas». More recently, in «The MR: In your early years, during the 70s, Per- Cleaner» at Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, the live formance Art started as an innovative, radical reinterpretation of Abramović’s celebrated perfor- and exclusive form of art, based on immateriali- mances – «Freeing Series» (1975), «Imponderabil- ty of art, independent from the economic sphere ia» (1977), «Cleaning the Mirror» (1995), «Lumi- and commodification. Do you believe that now- nosity» (1997), and «The House with the Ocean adays Performance Art maintains the same fea- View» (2002) – was entrusted to a group of per- tures or has its role inside contemporary society formers specially selected and trained by Abram- and the art scene changed? ovic’s close assistants.